They were the salt of the earth Evidence of ancient salt production found
Large-scale salt production occurred during the first millennium before Christ in the earliest "workshops" yet uncovered in China, archaeologists reported on Monday.
In a latest joint study, researchers from China and US found multiple lines of evidence of salt production at Zhongba, an archeological site lying along the Yangzi River in Zhong Xian County, Chongqing, China.
Their paper is published on the on-line issue of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. The authors from the Harvard University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Science and Technology of China, are all internationally acknowledged archaeologists.
Under the Old Neighborhood: In Iraq, an Archaeologist's Paradise
If a neighborhood is defined as a place where human beings move in and never leave, then the world's oldest could be here at the Citadel, an ancient and teeming city within a city girded by stone walls.
Resting on a layer cake of civilizations that have come and gone for an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 years, the Citadel looms over the apartment blocks of this otherwise rather gray metropolis in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The settlement rivals Jericho and a handful of other famous towns for the title of the oldest continuously inhabited site in the world. The difference is that few people have heard of the Citadel outside Iraq. And political turmoil has prevented a full study of its archaeological treasures.
Blog post Hands-On Archaeology
Above ground in the southwestern corner of Colorado, we can see spectacular evidence of an ancient culture. The best known examples lie in Mesa Verde. There's also the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Lowry Pueblo and Chimney Rock. But just under the surface of the ground exist far more clues to the thriviing civilization of the ancestors of modern Pueblo tribes that inhabited the region around present-day Cortez.
More Bulgarian treasure? Bronze Age graves in Bulgaria yield gold pieces linked to Troy
As many as 15,000 small pieces of finely crafted gold have been discovered in a group of 4,500-year-old graves from central Bulgaria -- a trove of beads, earrings and other small artifacts that were buried with a chieftain or king sometime before the 23rd century B.C.
The find in the village of Dabene, about 75 miles east of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, dates from about the same period as the ancient city of Troy, and some researchers have suggested that gold workers from the region of the village may have produced much of the treasure found at Troy and other ancient localities, such as Mycenae in Greece.
Not sure if this is the same stuff that's been making the rounds earlier (last week).
News from Mehr Iron Age skeleton discovered at Bistun site
The team of archaeologists working at the Bistun site recently discovered a 3000-year-old skeleton, the head of the team announced on Tuesday.
Ali Sajjadi said that the archaeologists surmise that the skeleton dates back to Iron Age III.
“The skeleton was lying on its left side aligned toward the south, a burial custom only observed during Iron Age III. There were also two jars beneath the right and left feet, with three damaged brass pots next to the body,” he said, adding that the items interred with the corpse indicate that the people of that time believed in an afterlife.
5000-year-old Clay Collection Discovered in Halil Rud Basin
During the construction project for an irrigation structure in Rudbar of Kerman province, experts discovered some 40 objects dating to the third millennium BC.
The objects, which are made of clay, were found in a depth of 4.5 meters along a ravine in the area, explained director of the archaeology department of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) in Kerman province and head of the archaeology center of South East Iran, Nader Alidadi Soleymani.
Interesting, but kind of uninformative. They provide a picture of one of the objects:
but it's function is indeterminate. Incense burner? We thought burial box, but those don't usually have holes.
Moroccan archaeologists work on new site.
An archeological site which dates from the Phoenician era (6th century BC), has recently been discovered near Ksar Sghir, reported MAP.
The site which held four civilizations was discovered accidentally in the region of Dhar Sakfane during work on the motorway section in Tangier –Oued R'mel. An archeological team is at present carrying out an emergency excavation.
Ewww. Estonian Archaeologists Play Flute Recovered from 600-Year Old Loo
Estonian archaeologists have found an ancient flute in an outhouse dating 600 years back, the DELFI news portal reports. The chief researcher praised the finding and said that the ancient musical instrument was still playable.
The dig site where the flute was found is located in the town of Tartu near the border with Russia. Chief researcher Andres Tvauri has said that the flute was in “working condition” after staying in an outhouse for six centuries and added that to his awareness there was no equally old woodwind instrument in Estonia that could still be played.
Okay, apparently no one actually put their lips to it.
Iron Age pottery found at schoolbuilding site
THE SITE of a school's new sports block has yielded some of the secrets of Barking and Dagenham's earliest residents.
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a late Bronze Age to early Iron Age (2400BC to 47AD) landscape, buried in the area where Dagenham Park Community's new sports building in School Road is to be built.
A number of archaeological deposits and features have been uncovered, and among the artefacts found were numerous pieces of well-preserved late Bronze Age and early Iron Age pottery, ceramic bars that may be from a nearby undiscovered pottery kiln, a clay tobacco pipe stem, as well as a small quantity of unworked flint, believed to be from prehistoric times.
That's the whole thing.
Back to China: Ancient site reveals stories of sacrificed horses
A trip to Zibo might leave you with the similar impression as to a trip to Xi'an, especially when you visit the relics of horses buried for sacrifice.
Zibo, in east China's Shandong Province, is the location of the state of Qi's capital in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). During this period, five feudal lords were able to gain control over the other states, with Duke Huan of Qi the head of the five.
The difference between the horse buried for sacrifice in Zibo and the terracotta warriors and horses in Xi'an of Shaanxi Province is that the horses in Zibo were live horses, killed especially for sacrifice.
Uh oh Hadrian's neglected mausoleum 'close to collapse'
One of ancient Rome's most popular and important landmarks is "close to collapse", covered in graffiti, with valuable frescos peeling away.
Castel Sant'Angelo, whose parlous state was revealed yesterday by Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's most authoritative newspapers, was built by the Emperor Hadrian as his own mausoleum on the banks of the Tiber. Its proximity to the Vatican persuaded popes in the Middle Ages to add ramparts and battlements to the marble structure and use it as a shelter when the city was under attack. A passage between the castle and the Vatican, once used by popes in time of crisis, still exists.
Oddest title of the month award Stone axes highlight 10,000 years of commuting in stockbroker belt
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered an important Stone Age site in the heart of Surrey.
An excavation has turned up flint tools and cooking pots from about 10,000 years ago at the site on the North Downs. The area, which bears the remains of cooked meals, campfires and flints shaped into tools by people who visited the North Downs around 8,000BC, is believed to contain one of the most important Mesolithic excavations in Britain.
Iceland archaeology update Secrets of Ancient Iceland, Dispatch 2: Connect the dots
If I knew what was in there, I wouldn't have to dig a hole."
My first day with a trowel and shovel, digging toward the Viking Age in a hayfield in northern Iceland, this offhand remark by John Steinberg became my motto.
Steinberg, from UCLA's Cotsen Institute, is hoping to make digging outdated for survey archaeology—and it looks like he might get his wish. He is working with Penn State anthropologist Paul Durrenberger to see the pattern in which this valley was settled; the settlement pattern will help them determine when and why Iceland was transformed from a collection of Viking chiefdoms into part of the kingdom of Norway sometime between 870 and 1262. But to find the pattern efficiently, they need a way to locate and measure all the Viking houses without digging lots of holes.
"There are two reasons for not digging holes," explains Durrenberger. "When you dig a hole, you destroy the site. And when you dig a hole it costs lots of money."
Bingo. It'll take tremendous leaps in technology to eventually be able to see everything in the ground as good as if you were digging a hole, but in the meantime we like the idea of doing as much as possible without excavation. Truthing like this is, however, necessary in the interim.
Dig finds remains of 2,000-year-old farm
GLOBAL positioning systems and digital aerial photographs are helping to uncover the 2,000-yearold secrets of Cambridgeshire's farmers.
The county's biggest archaeological dig is taking place at a 60-acre site and its findings are unearthing how the countryside developed over the course of two millennia.
On Monday, history enthusiasts, families and curious members of the public will be able to visit a display and tour the site at Love's Farm, near St Neots, which is soon to be developed for housing.
Researcher explores Spanish cave to find why early humans replaced Neanderthals in Europe
ASU researcher Ana Pinto is shedding some light on an age-old mystery in anthropology: What was the relationship between Neanderthals and early humans?
Pinto’s findings of the remains of a modern human culture stacked directly atop remnants of a Neanderthal dwelling in a Spanish cave are shedding light on the historical mystery and providing evidence for just how those species may have lived and interacted with their environment.
We posted a couple of stories about Dr. Pinto last year sometime, so there is not much new here, unless you didn't read the old one.